The long-awaited (and long-delayed) Windows Vista has finally been released to manufacturing. November 14th, 2006 marked the "event of the decade" for Microsoft and its partners as they announced three new products - Windows Vista, Microsoft Office System 2007 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007.

Indeed, LOVE was literally in the air. What's LOVE? That's Microsoft's acronym of the Launch of Office, Vista and Exchange Server. Cute, eh?

This is a really significant milestone for Microsoft and a big leap after so many years of its Windows XP. As such, everyone were clamouring to be part of the special preview that Microsoft held on November 14th. Let's go see what happened at the event!

The Beginning

The event began with a slideshow of successful Malaysians to lift everyone's spirits, as well as hint that these new Microsoft software would help even more Malaysians attain those heights. After all, Microsoft's new slogan is "People Ready".

Then, Yasmin Mahmood, Managing Director of Microsoft Malaysia began the event by touching on the topic of a changing world. It's a fitting topic because Microsoft has implemented sweeping changes in those thee products.

Indeed, if there's something we can expect from the new Windows, Office and Exchange Server, it's change, sweeping change. These software will not only look different, they will work quite differently from what we have been used to. Certainly, they will be more powerful. Hopefully, they will be even more intuitive to use.

The Sneak Preview

Then, it was time to reveal some cool stuff that we can do with a combination of the three software. Michel Gambier, of Microsoft Asia Pacific, gave us the demonstration.

Most of us will have read or tried Windows Vista Beta. So, Michel wasted no time going through the basic stuff.

He started with cool features like the "gadgets" that can be added to the desktop to add functionality. Imagine adding gadgets that allow you to monitor the CPU or fans, list down your contacts and addresses or even keep you updated on the share market!

He did show off the "Search" function at the bottom of the new Start menu. He emphasized that while it looks like the same Windows XP search function, it is actually faster and a lot more powerful. It actually updates the search list as you type in the search parameters!